Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate

The Way In

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate (北方文化博物館新潟分館表門) in Minamihamadori, Chuo Ward, Niigata City, is a timber gate built in 1915 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 28 April 2000.

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate stands roughly at the centre of the southwest frontage, facing the street. It is one bay wide, given in the national database as 2.3 metres. According to the agency's commentary, it was built when the Ito family improved the villa after buying it, and it is the first structure every visitor passes through.

A Sukiya Gate for a Sukiya House

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate was registered as a model of good design. It is built of good-quality timber, with supporting posts set behind the main posts.

The records disagree on its type. The structure field of the Agency for Cultural Affairs database calls it a timber Yakuimon, a gate whose roof spans main posts and rear posts. The commentary calls it an udegimon, in which the eaves are carried on arms projecting from the posts. These are not the same form, and this article reports both rather than choosing.

The copper roof has a gentle convex curve (mukuri), and the eave soffit is lined with thin exposed laths. The agency reads these details as sukiya design that leads on to the main house.

A Softly Swelling Roof

Stand to the side of the Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate and look at the roof line first. The copper roof rises slightly in the middle, the opposite of the upswept roofs common on temple gates, and the effect is soft rather than assertive.

As you pass beneath, look up. The lath-lined soffit is a prelude to the sukiya-style rooms of the main house beyond.

Walk round to the back and the supporting posts show how the gate is braced. Seeing the posts and roof together is the best way to weigh the two conflicting descriptions for yourself.

Visiting the Front Gate

The Northern Culture Museum Niigata Annex Front Gate is the entrance to the annex, and because it faces the street its exterior can be seen from the road.

The annex closes on Mondays, at the year end, and throughout January and February, but the gate can still be viewed from the street at those times. Enter the grounds only on opening days. Keep photography to exterior shots from the road, and ask at reception before taking pictures inside the grounds.